Let’s help John through his bowel cancer journey

Hi my name is Zoe. I have set up this go fund me page on behalf of my partner John, who is a dad to two fantastic boys.

On the 27th of February he was diagnosed with bowel cancer after a colonoscopy on the 17th of February. The cancer has spread to his lymph nodes and with the possibility that it has spread to his peritoneum. He won’t find out until after his major surgery if the cancer is in his peritoneum but the oncologist and surgeon are thinking it is in it. In that case the diagnosis will go to a stage 4 diagnosis. Where the tumor is located in the cecum part of his bowel the tumour is involving the terminal ileum, cecum and appendix orrifice which is now an empty orrifice after the tumour caused his apendix to explode. The tumour is a high grade aggressive cancer which is pressing on his iliacus muscle which controls hip flexons. During surgery they also may find that the tumour has grown into the iliacus muscle.

With the cancer pressing on his iliacus muscle at the moment it is restricting mobility therefore he now uses a walking stick to get around.

John started his chemotherapy regimen on 4th of April. He is receiving a drug called folfox in which he also goes home after his infusion in the hospital with a chemotherapy pump that pumps the last drug in over 46hours. The chemotherapy is already causing difficulties for him but now it has damaged his femoral nerve on the opposite of his body to the tumour so this is now causing problems with both legs, one from the tumor pressing on the iliacus muscle and now the nerve damage on his left leg.

For the major surgery he will need he will receive it in the Mater hospital in Dublin in which he will have the tumours removed and also heated chemotherapy pumped into his abdomen to kill any roaming cancer cells in which they can’t see to the naked eye.

After the surgery he will be followed up by a long course of chemotherapy and then regular scans to track if the cancer has regrown or anything else.

With all this happening at the moment John is currently out of work and I have also reduced my hours at work to care for him. As you can imagine it is causing us financial difficulties and mental stress as traveling to and from the hospital and to have his chemotherapy pump removed is already costing us a lot of money as the hospital is over 40 minutes away to get to.

He is currently on a lot of medication which some is covered by his medical card but not all of them are which is also causing some stress.

When he is having his surgery he will be up in Dublin for over 2 week’s minimum which will also some with financial difficulties with travel costs alone and the other costs that come with being away from home as I will also be taking the time off work.

Depending on how his surgery goes we may need to add mobility adds to our home as we won’t know the outcome of his mobility until after the surgery.

This has been hard on everyone with John receiving this diagnosis especially as he has bipolar so it has hit him extra hard.

Thank you for taking the time to read our story and for any of the support John has received now and in the coming future. I understand not everyone is in a position to help but we appreciate every bit of help we have received now and in the future wether it be financially or not every ounce of help is greatly appreciated.

Thank you,

John & Zoe